Tips For Skilling Up

To find good mobs to skill up on, use the first chart to determine what rank your job has with the skill you wish to raise. With that in mind, use the second chart to see what level your skill is currently at. The best mobs to skill up on are mobs that are around the level you'd have that skill. For example, a THF with 142 sword skill would see that they had a D ranking in Sword, and that this is in the range of level 52. So ideally, he or she would want to skill up on mobs that are around level 52. Once skillups slow down on those mobs, repeat the process.

You will receive skill ups on any mob that is Decent Challenge or above for your skill. Since the 2/14/11 update which changed this (previously you only recieved skillups from mobs Even Match or higher), this has become a bit more complicated. See below for more information.

Any Decent Challenge mob can cap your skills, but different level ranges have different levels that are considered Decent Challenge to them. This probably sounds more complicated than it is; just look at the table below to see what levels are Decent Challenge at each given level:

Your Level

Level of Decent Challenge Mobs

1-30

1-2 levels lower than you

31-40

1-3 levels lower than you

41-50

1-4 levels lower than you

51-60

1-5 levels lower than you

61-70

1-6 levels lower than you

71-99

1-7 levels lower than you

With weapon skills, if you do 0 damage, you will not receive a skillup. This was not always the case, but was changed in a certain patch. (Note: There are conflicting reports over whether you can skill get skillups on 0 damage hits. Some say it's just more rare now, while others say it is completely impossible. From my own experience, I've gone for an hour straight spamming my ranged attack macro on Steelshells, and despite good accuracy, I didn't get a single skillup. All my hits were for 0, including critical hits.)

A Puppetmaster's Automaton skills up exactly in the same way players do; they just have different skills (Melee, Ranged, and Magic). Their skill ranks depend on their frame/head, and can be seen in the secondary chart above.

Evasion skill is raised by getting hit (whether the attack connects or not) with physical attacks by mobs Decent Challenge or higher to your skill level, similar to how weapon skills work. (Note: There are multiple reports of people having capped evasion on Decent Challenge mobs one way or another; it is unknown how this happens, but the theory is that it is some kind of bug or glitch in the system.)

Guarding skill and Parrying skill are raised by taking hits to the front of your character when your weapon is out (i.e. engaged to the mob). Hits to your back do not count, sadly, so you cannot engage and then turn around. Again, the mobs must be of an appropriate level for your skill for you to receive skillups.

A common method for skilling up Parrying and Guarding is to engage a mob, hit it once, then switch target to another mob that is out of melee range (without moving). In this way, you still have your weapon out, and are facing the first mob, but you aren't attacking it, so you can keep it alive as long as you want, for skillups.

Shield skill is raised by taking hits to the front of your character. Your weapon does not have be out to receive shield skillups, but you still can't be hit from behind and get skillups. As always, the mobs must be of an appropriate level for your skill for you to receive skillups.

Any magic that deals damage is leveled just like weapon skills, with the exception that you still receive skillups when the spell does 0 damage.

Healing, Enhancing, and Summoning magic skills are raised by casting the magic. Note that Healing magic can also be used to deal damage to Undead mobs, and doing so makes skillups work the same way as weapon skills and damage dealing magic. Skillups are faster this way, but the downside is that you have to fight things using this method.

Enfeebling magic works the same way as weapon skills. If the spell is fully resisted, you will not receive a skillup.

Singing and instrument skills are raised in mostly the same way as their corresponding magic types. Enfeebling songs that are fully resisted will give skillups, but songs cast on mobs below Decent Challenge to your current skill level will not. Buffs can give skillups at any level.

You cannot receive skillups on a skill that comes exclusively from your subjob. For example, a THF who subs WHM will not receive skillups in Healing magic, even if their skill is not capped. The same goes for weapons; using the example from before, a THF subbing WHM will not receive Staff skillups by using a staff, even if their skill is not capped.

You can receive skillups from mobs in Dynamis and Besieged, though up to what level is uncertain. It should be noted, however, that mobs in Besieged have extremely high evasion. As such, it is less practical to level weapon skills on them (until high levels) than it is to level magic skills on them.

When it comes to Evasion, Guard, Parrying, and Shield, there is a certain priority the game uses. It checks your evasion first, then Parrying, then shadows from Blink/Utsusemi, then Guard/Shield (you can't guard with a shield equipped, so these share a slot). What this means is that evading attacks is bad when leveling Shield, Guard, or Parrying. Typically when leveling these skills, you want to wear as much gear with Evasion penalties as you can. Shadows from Blink/Utsusemi are okay for Parrying, but Shield/Guard are checked after shadows (since you have to be hit to guard or block with a shield).

Gear or merits that give +skill levels to the skill you are skilling up do not force you to fight higher level mobs to get skillups. Skillups are earned as if you did not have that additional skill. The additional skill simply helps your accuracy, (which is always good ^^). For example, if a BLM with 158 Elemental magic skill equips an Ice Staff (+10 Elemental magic skill), they will still receive skillups on mobs level 47-48 (and of course, higher level mobs as well). The additional skill simply helps them land their spells better.

Magic that does not do damage (Paralyze/Slow/Flash/Aspir, etc; not DoT spells like Dia and Bio) can be leveled on Hpemdes in Al'Taieu, as they will not actually attack you until they have been dealt damage. This cannot be done with Enhancing or Elemental magic, unfortunately, as there are no non-damaging spells that target the enemy in these categories. Healing Magic spells *may* work (I've not personally tested this). Below is a list of spells for each magic type that will not cause a Hpemde to attack, while giving skillups:

Finding Suitable Skill Up Mobs

The best way I've found to do this is to decide on a type of mob you want to fight (usually something easy, like crabs, but there's no reason you can't farm while skilling up!), then go to the category page for that mob family (example: Category:Crabs) and look for mobs in the level range you want. Remember that ideally you want mobs around the same level as your current skill. You can always go higher (or lower, as long as they are Decent Challenge or higher), but skillups will tend to be slower until they are in the normal EM range for your skill.

With the new level caps, people have been having a harder time finding places to skill up. While there were still many options at 80, at 85, just about all mobs are Decent Challenge or lower, and thus will not let level 85 players cap their skills. (This is not true as of 2/14/11, but whatever. :P) While mobs in Abyssea will work, there are a few new mobs that were added along with the rise in cap to 85 in Aht Urhgan areas. Below are the ones I have found so far, though I may be missing a couple. All of them are level 88-89 (possibly as high as 90 for some), making them Tough to Very Tough at 85. This means that, aside from skilled soloers, you will likely need to bring a couple people to be safe when fighting these.

Far from ideal, as they are mixed in with Dahaks (level 82-83), and the occasional Phasma (73-76) at night. Additionally, Incinerate can be dangerous at high HP. They do sleep at night, however, causing them not to aggro or link.

Far better than the Erucas above; these are normal crawlers, and at a less out of the way camp, without other mobs mixed in. You can chocobo to entrance 5 from Wajaom Woodlands (G-7), and from there it is a short walk to camp. Unknown yet if they link; if they do, it could be a problem without a sleeper. However, they are on a 16 minute repop timer, being in a dungeon.

Quickest way to get to them is to enter from (G-10) or (E-9) of Wajaom Woodlands (entrance 3 or 4). This will put you on Map 4. Then go to the drop marked A, and you'll be in the room with these. Less than ideal, as funguar TP moves can be somewhat annoying, but not too horrible. Note that when I checked out this camp, there were NO mobs that checked Tough; only Very Tough. Again, these are on a 16 minute repop timer, being in a dungeon.

In all honesty, this is a horrible location. The quickest way involves going from the Ilrusi Atoll staging point, then heading to the spot marked A on Map 2. This will put you close to the camp, however you'll have to pass imps and a Soulflayer or two on your way, which are true sight and true sound, respectively. Additionally, they have 2 AoE moves that will wipe shadows, and are on a 16 minute repop timer, being in a dungeon.

These are pretty convenient too. Take the west exit from Nashmau, and it's a short walk to camp. It's worth noting that these are the only mobs I've found that Thief's Hide ability will work on, so THFs working on skilling evasion (or even other things) solo will want to consider this camp. They also don't aggro, though they do link. It's pretty easy to pull them without links, however. They're also on a 5 minute repop timer like the Zhayolm mobs, being in a field area.

I just found out about these (I suspected there had to be another new mob in Caedarva Mire, since the others zones all got at least 2!). Dunno where they are yet, but I suppose it doesn't matter too much; flies suck to fight, what with Cursed Sphere and their tendency to link. The only thing they have going for them is that they are on a 5 minute repop, being in an outside area.

With the rise in cap to 90, SE added some new T-VT @ 90 mobs to WotG areas. This time, thankfully, they are all in outdoor areas, so they all have 5 minute repops. :)

Yuck. Saplings are annoying, with AoE sleep from Slumber Powder and their tendency to link. If you're doing a trial that requires Treant kills and you want some decent exp and skillups to go with it though, this might be nice.